OT (reverse mortgage)

anyone here do it ?

Do you honestly think that Magnum P.I, the Fonz , D.A. Arthur Branch from Law & Order, and the guy who pushed Natalie Wood off their boat would steer you wrong???

(quoted from post at 06:31:59 04/03/19) anyone here do it ?

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I have not and will not.

The selling points for a reverse mortgage are there are no monthly payments and you still "own" your home and can live in it in perpetuity. Not inconsequential especially the latter BUT it is still a mortgage loan and you still accrue monthly interest charges on the unpaid balance. While that interest is deferred it gets added to the outstanding principal balance and will compound at the rate set by the mortgage. This makes a reverse mortgage considerably more expensive than a conventional home equity loan. Over time the amount owed can easily swell to more than the home is worth. You may still "own" your home and continue to live in it but your remaining equity has shrunk to zero. In other words there is no free lunch.

If you want to cash out some equity and can afford a monthly payment a conventional home equity loan or line of credit is a better financial deal.

TOH

I know all that. i'm just wondering if anybody here has done it.

I used to live in a community where one of my neighbors got one of those reverse mortgages. He screwed the bank over BIG time however he wasn't alive to know it. He got a
$300k mortgage when the housing market was high. About 10 years or so later his wife died and he followed some time after. Problem was that real estate values had since
dropped to less than half of that mortgaged value. The only living relative was a sister who wanted nothing to do with it (since it no longer had any positive value). The
bank didn't do anything with it for over 10 years probably because they didn't want it to show up as a sales loss on their books. That debt was sold for pennies on the dollar
I think several times and wound up being owned by a holding company. The place did not get any better, from no one living in it, and while real estate values slowly rose they
were nothing like before the last crash. Finally went to auction and sold for $115k IIRC.

(quoted from post at 11:03:20 04/03/19) I know all that. i'm just wondering if anybody here has done it.

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o one is going to admit it if they did!

Mom did it.
She had an appraiser out and convinced him the double wide mobile was stick built due to the extensions built on both sides.
While they were done, mostly right, it still was not a stick built house.
Then there was the water issue.
It seems mom did not listen to the children when they told her to make sure the property had water before buying.
Absolutely it had water! It was only 50 feet above the river. Why shouldn't it have water?
Yep. Dry as a bone.
So no water on a mobile and she got about $250K
Great bank.
She laughed so hard and knew the bank would not be happy when she passed.
The bank called and asked if I would like to buy it at cost. I declined with a smile in my voice.
The tax notices started showing up and those were also ignored as they were not in my name.
A few people bought and sold it and the last guy had a well driller out there looking when I stopped by one day.
I told him about the 3 dry holes mom drilled and how I finally got her on rain water and a cistern.
He then remarked he would be happy just to get paid from the current buyer.
That was 3 years ago, maybe longer, and it is still empty.

As for doing one, It all depends on your individual situation. There are good points and bad.
Banks usually don't lose out on these deals.

we have considered it from time to time but have never pulled the trigger. I would like to hear from someone who actually did it.